Half A Day Off

Posted on Mon Aug 27th, 2012 @ 7:59pm by Jasper Crayton & Tulira Rakykchim

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Jasper's quarters then the Promenade
Timeline: morning to mid day

Jasper jumped out of bed pissed at himself for oversleeping. Still groggy and a little unbalanced on his feet, he stumbled the 3 meters across the sleeping area of his tiny quarters to the computer interface. He swore he could remember telling the computer the night before to wake him up as he’d always done…or had he? On second thought, no he hadn’t.

Smiling a crusty half-smile to himself, he remembered he hadn’t needed to tell the computer anything. Tulira was his opener now and so he could sleep in as late as he wanted to, but seeing as it was already 9:00 a.m. he thought he may as well get his day started.

About to make his way to his tiny restroom he noticed a flashing 900 News icon on his terminal’s display; the morning issue of the stations main news page must have arrived. He hated his tiny restroom. Standing in one spot but depending on which direction he was facing, he could urinate, brush his teeth, and take a shower without taking a step. It was efficient, but not comfortable.

After showering and dressing, breakfast was next and, about to request his usual fruit and granola bar which was quick and easy to eat with his hands, (he usually ate standing right in front of the replicator) he realized he actually had time to sit down and eat his breakfast. He would have scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, and pancakes with maple syrup. His mouth watered as he ordered it and he relished every bite of the heavy meal, but he felt full and it lost its appeal about half way through eating it. Clearly he’d been thinking with his taste buds and not his stomach or head when he ordered it from the replicator.

He decided to just finish his coffee and leaned back in his chair to read the morning news on his palmtop. The news was all pretty much the same every day, Jasper found, and all usually laced with the same goody two-shoes dogma of the federation. Relations with the Arcadians were still tenuous…and just how much of a foothold the so called crime syndicate had on the station was still a mystery. All the usual political talk was there too, with everybody trying to explain why their ideas are the best by tearing down everybody else’s. Also, amusingly, the elected advocate for deck 336, a married human male, was caught in the cherry pit with a prostitute. Jasper chuckled when he read the man was claiming rape but then thought it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility when he read the supposed prostitute was an Arcadian female. There were 2 marriages, 3 births and 5 deaths with one of the deaths being a murder. Jasper’s curiosity was peaked when he read about the murder. Apparently, the body of a Ferengi trader (what Ferengi isn’t a trader Jasper thought) was found in some rarely traveled area of the cherry pit. Jasper wondered how long it had taken station security to get there. One day, while standing out front of his shop at one of his tables having a coffee, he overheard a guard standing at another table having a conversation with a civilian say that some of the guards didn’t like going down there. Jasper had overheard a lot of rumors concerning the command staff that way; apparently half of them were having sex with the other half and one of them apparently talks to spiders.

After finishing his coffee, which was replicated and didn’t taste nearly as good as the real thing he served at Jasper’s he’d had enough news for the day and decided to check in on Tulira at the shop. Coming off the turbolift and rounding the corner onto the promenade, Jasper was reminded of an event he’d forgotten was taking place. The yells and screams of encouragement from the crowd were reverberating inside the tall, wide, hollow space. The first annual station marathon was under way; the course of which passed through the promenade on one level and extended the full width of the widest part of the station. How many circuits the runners had to do Jasper didn’t know.

Approaching his coffee shop, he saw Tulira out front. She had turned out to be an excellent employee and she had earned his trust. She could run the place on her own. After all there wasn’t much to it.

“Hi Tulira, how’s business? Doing alright?”

“Just fine boss. No problems.”

“Sounds good, call me if you have any questions. I’ll be back around 2:00 to take over.”

Continuing on around the promenade at a leisurely pace, Jasper passed a variety of different shops. There were clothing stores of course. Some of the clothes in which were obviously not meant for the humanoid form. The furnishings store made him wish he had more furniture. But then again, he asked himself, where in his tiny quarters he would put them.

Next, he came to an unoccupied location and as he wondered why it was unoccupied he realized why it was so. A stench reached his nose. I was apparently coming out of the establishment next door. Jasper quickened his pace a little and as he passed the establishment from which the stench was coming, he looked in. It was dark and dimly lit with red lighting, which was the only color lighting he could see inside. Some of the lights seemed to be in a pattern and as his eyes adjusted he could see they were on top of tables. It was then he thought the place might be a restaurant. A movement caught his eye and it was then he saw a set of eyes staring at him from deep inside. It was a Klingon and at that point the look of the place and the stench made sense.

Passing on, Jasper came to a shop he thought he may be very interested in buying something from. It was a shop that sold implants.